Mate, I also thought that I can watching my child and day trading at same time. But I dropped that idea, becuase it is impossible to be in focus both of them. You should trade at the opening and closing breaks only ( 1 -1 hour/day), and got someone who care about the childs for that time. Or if you are familiar with programming- go to expert advisors and do semmi/fully automated trades. But before doing anything keep a rest for a while to escape your bad habites and prepeare for the new style.
You should carefully re-read your quote above... Too many mix messages in your thoughts. Simply, most likely you won't resolve this until it resolves itself which will be the case when your kids are old enough where they don't need constant attention at home when they are in the house while your trading (e.g. 8 - 10 yrs old). Therefore, I think your last message sums up what you should be doing... Thus, put trading aside (leave it alone) and take care of your kids until they're at an age where you feel you'll be able to give 100% to your trading without it having any impact on properly raising your kids. Mark
Thanks Nihaba you're probably right but it's part of me, it's my passion. I'm not comparing my success to theirs but it's like telling Tom Brady to stop throwing footballs or Tiger to quit the tour for 4 years. That said, I'd like to find a way. Scaling back is a must, maybe I won't be successful until the kids are old enough but I have to at least try.
As a guy trying to balance my day job, trading and family, I can understand your sentiments. Few things that I am trying to do are: a) Observe market as much as I can (not really trading, just observing/analyzing) b) Wait and trade only those extreme situations (aka gifts from market) that come once in a while You will quickly realize that the number of trades you execute is not proportionate to the amount of money you make at the end of the year Good luck
Please quit trading now. The "trading is a part of me" is a sure sign that you will lose. Loving trading is not a sign of a winner. Rather someone destined to blow up
Something perhaps you can do is read the charts daily for setups, I don't mean short intraday setups, I mean setups that cover gains over a a whoel day or couple of days. Do this in the afternoon while the kids are napping. When you see something you think you like the setup of a trailing stop entry order, after it has executed setup an trailing stop exit order, what you are gambling on now is how much off the top you are willing to sacrifice to make sure you don't get stopped out by the intraday noise. I set up trailing stops when I have to leave my desk to go to a meeting or something similar. Sometimes I regret having not made as much as I could, but I seriously appreciate the fact that I didn't lose as much as was possible.
learn to swing or position trade. this way you dont have to look at charts for hrs every day. This is what I do. I work full time during market hrs, but not being a day trader, its not a problem. I look at charts at the days end, and place orders the night before the market opens. No stress. And you can do all your analysis after the kids go to bed if you so choose. cm69
I was in your shoes. Now after almost ten years, I am down to my last 2 1/2 days as a professional full-time stay-at-home dad. The smallest one goes to kindergarten next fall. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. For the reasons you cited, I chose to trade minimally. I wanted to be available to paint horse pictures, play hide-and-seek, and make homemade play-dough. It's not a job for everybody, I know...